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Impact of litter and aerial biomass of the Eucalyptus growth on sandy soils in the Congo

Nzila J.D.D., Bouillet J.P.. 1998. In : CIFOR. Site Management and Productivity in Tropical Forest Plantations. Impact on Soils and Options for Management over Successive Rotations. 2. Pointe-Noire : CIRAD-Forêt, 7 p.. CIFOR. Site Management and Productivity in Tropical Forest Plantations. Impact on Soils and Options for Management over Successive Rotations. 2, 1998-02-16/1998-02-20, Pietermaritzburg (Afrique du Sud).

In the Congo, about 43,000 ha Eucalyptus hybrids have been planted in the Kouilou savannah since 1978. This has been done on higly desatured ferrallitic, sandy and chemically very poor soils. An area of 1,000 ha have been already replanted and this area will highly increase in the next future. The replanting leads to new silvicultural issues. After harvesting a stand is characterized by interrows with slash residues (SI), interrows where logs are stocked (LI) and unloading interrows (UI). This heterogeneousness has to be managed for replanting i.e. slash hampers, the soil preparation of SI and the compaction of UI is suspected to limit tree growth. A trial was therefore established to test crossed effects of litter management (control, burning, litter burried with a disc harrow) and site preparation (pitting, subsoiling using 1 tine, subsoiling using 3 tines). After 11 months the results are follows: (1) The best treatment is "burning + subsoiling using 3 tine"; compared to the control treatment the gain is more than 1 meter in height (6.64 m vs 5.43 m) and 3.5 cm in girth (18.57 cm vs 14.94 cm); (2) The interaction "litter management"*"site preparation" is not significant; (3) The mains effect "burning" and "subsoiling using 3 tines" are significantly better

Mots-clés : eucalyptus; eucalyptus tereticornis; eucalyptus grandis; replantation; hybride; litière forestière; croissance; sous solage; fertilité du sol; sol sableux; congo

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